Manifesto

b. 1986, HK.

Cuntemporary Artists Presents is an artist collective founded by Joanne Leah and Marne Lucas. Both artists make work that celebrates the aesthetic of the body within unique landscapes. They are interested in society’s reactions to beauty, bodily functions, sexuality, and cultural ideas about re-interpretations of the body. They identify as feminists in life and art; their photographic and video work is bold and opposite, in Leah’s use of vivid color and textures, and Lucas’ use of black & white infrared video. “A mating of opposites is often central to great art.” Leah suggests that the images themselves become proof of a vulnerable act, between skin and viscera, exhibitionist and voyeur, public and private. While Lucas posits that the darkness of humanity and our fear of the unknown is the “stranger who comes to town,” as recent cultural shifts bring attention to our messy grappling with a dying patriarchy and the sinister prevalence of military and surveillance culture. “The visitor” also implies women’s menstrual cycles, which can be reimagined as the Stranger, in estrogen estrangement of menopause.

Cuntemporary Artists Presents will be launching more artist collaborators in the near future.